Dying Victim May Have Revealed Her Killer, Leading To Mistrial

A Mississippi woman suffered a horrific death. Someone put her in her car and set it on fire. She was found that winter night in nothing but her underwear walking down a rural road. She had burns over 93 percent of her body. She died hours later of her injuries. A man charged with her murder stood trial, but a judge ruled it a mistrial after a little detail came out: she may have named a different man as her killer with her dying breath.

The death of 19-year-old Jessica Chambers was positively horrific. The former high school cheerleader was burned alive on a rural road outside of Memphis, Mississippi. When a motorist found her, she had burns over 93 percent of her body. First responder Cole Haley said the sight of her suffering was so horrific that it had traumatized him for months.

"She had her arms out, saying, 'Help me, help me, help me,'" Haley said on the witness stand. "Her hair was fried like it had been stuck in a light socket. Her face was black, and her body was severely burned."

Quinton Tellis, her 29-year-old boyfriend, was arrested and charged with capital murder. He was facing life in prison without parole.

Tellis and Chambers had known each other for two weeks and had just started a romantic relationship. The two had spent the early afternoon together, then separated for a few hours. They met up again for dinner and went out for fast food, then had sex in her car.

Police say they felt Tellis was uncooperative with investigators. At first, he insisted that he only saw the victim in the morning, but phone records proved they met up again later. Tellis then told police he met with her to sell her marijuana.

Police believe that Tellis suffocated Chambers in the back of her car, then drove to the rural road with her in the back thinking she was dead. They say he then ran to his sister's home nearby, got his sister's car, stopped for gas in a shed at his house and lit the car on fire with Chambers in it.

The defense attorney argued that Tellis was innocent because Chambers had already named her killer as someone named ‘Eric’.

The night he found her, Haley wrote in a report that Chambers told him 'Eric' was the culprit. One of the firefighters had asked her what happened, and she reportedly said something along the lines of ‘Eric’ or ‘Derek’ setting her on fire.

Haley now says he's unsure if that's what she said. "I was face to face with her, and you could barely understand her," he said, noting he wasn't the one who personally heard her say 'Eric'.

Because of this testimony, the judge declared a mistrial and Tellis was released. Tellis was also indicted for the murder of a Louisiana woman, 34-year-old Meing-Chen Hsiao. A trial date has not been set yet.